A 50-year-old woman was "horrified" after attacking four police officers in a "moment on madness" at her home, a court has heard. 

Chelmsford Crown Court heard police had been called to na incident at Emma Bigg's home in September last year. 

When they arrived there was an altercation and Bigg, 50, of Holt Drive, punched and scratched the officers. 

The court heard she also attempted to bite one of them and spat in another officer’s face. 

She admitted four charges of assault. 

Isabella Glendinning, mitigating, told the court that Bigg had “a total lack of recollection of the events” and had “dipped in and out of consciousness” during the incident as she had consumed alcohol prior. 

Mrs Glendinning said Bigg has been “very remorseful” and “horrified” by her actions, which was described as a “one off” incident. 

Recorder Paul Sharkey acknowledged the fact that the assault was aggravated by the fact that the defendant had been intoxicated but credited her for her guilty plea at the earliest opportunity. 

He read an impact statement by Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington, who said “police officers are people” and would not be expecting to be “assaulted in such way”. 

Mr Sharkey said: “It is unclear who called the police but it was not down to your behaviour but the actions of another male.” 

He accepted Bigg’s remorse about the “embarrassing” and “out of character” actions of that evening. 

“You are 50 years and have four convictions for five offences. It has been clearly out of character in your life, this evening or moment of madness," he said. 

“You clearly regret it." 

Bigg has been sentenced to a community order including 30 days of rehabilitation activity over the next 18 months for each offence to run concurrently. 

During the period of the community order, Bigg has to meet with a supervisor and comply with any instructions given by them to avoid being recalled to court.